Some hypnotic ambient composition to round out the week on Doubtful Sounds. PCM is an Italian ambient trio comprised of musicians Francesco Perra (P), Matteo Cantaluppi (C), Matteo Milea (M). They’ve come together to record this non-album single ‘Ma’, ahead of a full-length release. It shimmers and drifts, it’s aqueous and cloud-like in the way it moves and transitions gently across nearly eight hypnotic minutes. Matteo … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: PCM – Ma
Obstacle are a USA trio comprised of Annie Murnighan (Found Object), Elias Jarzombek, and Amos Damroth (AJE). They’ve only been around for a year and a half but they already have three digital releases under their belt, including this latest one ‘Unknown Number’. It’s a track that runs its sounds through murky ominous filters with heavily treated and unrecognisable vocals and really interesting rhythms and … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Obstacle – Unknown Number
Christopher Willits is an acclaimed ambient composer and musician who has opened for the late Jóhann Jóhannsson and released two albums with Ryuichi Sakamoto and productions with Tycho as part of his impressive back catalogue. The five compositions on his new album Sunset move from warm to cool designed as a soundtrack to embrace the day’s end. ‘Coast’ rises and falls like the ocean currents, a tidal blend of synth … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Christopher Willits – Sunset
A while ago we posted about a track from Joey Beltran called Childhood Memories which was our first taste of this new compilation Pure Sounds of Michigan, an ambient album that invites listeners to take a sunrise-to-sunset tour of Michigan from coast to coast as interpreted by some of the state’s most talented musicians. The album came out a few weeks ago on Detroit-based Assemble Sound, and was imagined, … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Windy & Carl – Forest Trails
Playfulness in electronic music can be a hard thing to capture, without sounding like pop music and lacking depth and nuance. Silvermannen (Sweden) have got the balance just right. ‘Gryning’ is light on it’s feet but still has a weight of gentle melancholy to it. It’s definitely more autumnal than summery in its vibe. There’s more than a whiff of nostalgia in the synth sounds … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Silvermannen – Gryning
The wonderfully named Hail!Maggiedacat is a London producer and visual artist and this track, ‘Gemini Moon’, comes from her new EP Impossible Woman. It’s got a great, woozy 80s vibe about it like a lost video game or a soundtrack to a melancholic sci-fi TV series. The rest of the EP has a similarly dream-psych analog synth vibe to it too. Highly recommended. Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Hail!Maggiedacat – Gemini Moon
New music this morning from the country of Greece, courtesy of gothic post-rock outfit τεφλόν (teflon) and their track ‘επίσκεψη’ (Episkepsi), the Greek word for visit. This track snakes along with just the right balance of gloomy melody and agile, detailed playing, building with orchestral urgency to a briskly curtailed climax. You can pick up the track as part of the Athens band’s two song EP … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: τεφλόν – επίσκεψη
It’s the tension and mood of this piece that caught our ear when we came across it online. The way that John Beltran sonically suspends the mood before introducing the tentative snippets of piano that flutter and suggest, like a butterfly unfurling wet wings. The back half emerges with greater weight on the back of swells of synthetic drift that rise and fall with heavy … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: John Beltran – Childhood Memories
Sydney artist Prudence releases his debut EP Major Tom tomorrow on Bandcamp and streaming platforms. Prudence is songwriter (and bassist for DMAs) Tom Crandles who also releases music as Au.Ra with Tom Jenkins. Major Tom’s six tracks were recorded in Margate, Kent UK, completed in Sydney and finally mixed in Auckland earlier this year. The results are a kaleidoscopic blend of post punk, new wave melancholia … Continue reading FIRST LISTEN: Prudence – Major Tom
Two of the guys from S U R V I V E, Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein, who are best known for the soundtrack work on Stranger Things, have composed the music for Rashid Johnson’s dramatic directorial debut Native Son, which was Sundance’s opening night film. Based on Richard Wright’s seminal novel of the same name, the modern reimagining of Wright’s 1930’s coming-of-age drama chronicles Bigger … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein – Affluenza
Glistening, glitchy bleeps and pulsing waveforms abound on this track from Tiger Mountain, the work of duo Boris Skalsky and Paul Wood. It comes from their five track EP of the same name and the title piece dives into a sci-fi, semi-industrial filmic world where insistent rhythms anchor the music in driving synthetic motion. For fans of Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Zombi Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Tiger Mountain – Structures
Fresh sounds out of Norway this morning with this sleepy psych trip from Toy Savoy. We’re keen to hear more from the quintet as the song fades out after three minutes, just as full immersion in their dreamy soundscapes takes hold. Listening to some of their earlier material it seems they can take things up a notch into noisier shoegaze territory but ‘Something New’ excels … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Toy Savoy – Something New
Doubtful Sounds 